


Burn

by Unfried_Mouth_Wheat



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Tragedy, Ba Sing Se, But that isn't new, Gen, Jet fights Zuko, Jet misses fire, Longshot (mentioned), Smellerbee (mentioned), Uncle Iroh (mentioned) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26228272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unfried_Mouth_Wheat/pseuds/Unfried_Mouth_Wheat
Summary: Jet loses everything
Relationships: Jet & Zuko (Avatar)
Kudos: 15





	Burn

Fire had taken everything away from him. His parents. His village. His family. It's most recent conquest turned up his last remaining friends. Everything that was wrong with him could be linked back to fire. He considered himself lucky. He had nothing more that fire could take from him then it already has. At least, that's what he thought. He didn't expect fire to take itself away from him.

Li was leaving for the upper ring, and Jet felt nothing but betrayal. He didn't even know why. He had no good reason for why he felt this way. He just did, and it ached. It hurt so much that he felt he had to do something.

Li was the living, breathing flesh incarnation of fire. He hated it, so he hated Li. He wanted nothing more than to cut the ash maker up with his blades. Li was the reason Smellerbee and Longshot had left him. He wanted nothing more than for Li and his stupid uncle to burn. To die by their own element in a cruel act of justified karma. That seemed to disappear when he heard that they had accepted the offer of a teashop and a nice apartment.

He wasn't ready for fire to leave him just yet. Without it, he had nothing. He had been able to do something about the soldiers in Gaipan. While in the lower ring, he could do something about Li. But now? Now he was just as useless as when he was eight. Just a sobbing child who was too afraid to move. He needed fire. He needed the control that it granted him. He wasn't going to let himself be weak again. He knew that if he did, he'd die shortly after. His anger seemed like the only thing that seemed to keep him going. If that left him, he'd have no reason to move forward. 

Sneaking into the upper ring was the easy part. Jump on one of the carts while remaining out of sight and boom, you were there. Staying without getting kicked out was the hard part. He'd need to clean up his act of he wanted to stay for any amount of time. That meant dropping his weapons. Trading the precious blades for the most standard outfit hurt him, but it was all necessary. He could kill with his hands, he was sure. 

He needed to time his attack correctly. There wasn't nearly as much coverage as there had been in the lower ring. Li would fight back, and he didn't want to cause a scene. He couldn't afford to cause a scene. Li was just outside of his apartment, no doubt picking up more ingredients for yet another new speciality brew. Just a few more steps.

Jet pounced, leaping off of the roof he had been stalking on. He could hear something crack when he hit the ground, but what should have been a jolt of pain was numb and dull. That didn't matter though. What mattered was that he had Li pinned down. His hands were on Li's throat, fingers at his jugular and thumbs at his windpipe. A sharp squeeze and he'd have his revenge. 

He hesitated. Why was he hesitating? Li was right there! A fist to his nose told him that he took too long, and that his chance was gone. This was no longer an ambush, this was a brawl.

Limbs flew about and bruises were shared. He was going to take out Li one way or another. He had too, otherwise he'd be fighting for nothing. He'd be fighting for nothing, and that was a thought that he couldn't bare. A thought that he buckled under. This in turn gave Li the opening he needed to kick Jet to the ground. He'd lost.

He'd lost, he'd lost, he'd lost! Everything, everyone he cared about, was gone! He was alone, fighting for no reason I'm a world that had abandoned him at eight. That he had given up on when he was eight. He wanted to scream, to shriek and curse and blame, but he couldn't. All that came out were choked sobs. Cries that wracked his body as it grew colder on the cobbled ground. Lights were turning on, people gathering around to get a look at the fool who had started bawling in public, even if it was night time. 

Li had fled the scene. The Dai Li came, grabbed him and hauled him up. He struggled, for what else could he do? He was so, so alone. He wanted to be surrounded by his friends, his family. He could almost make out his mother calling his name and his father welcoming him back from his long day of playing as he was thrown into a cell on wheels. Almost, but not quite.

Why did fire have to leave him? Why did it always take and take and take even more? Why did he have to hesitate in the moment? He wanted answers, but even more importantly, he wanted fire back.


End file.
